November 21, 2021 Annual Fall Congregational Meeting Info

The Fall Congregation Meeting will be held Sunday, November 21—details to be announced. In accordance with our Constitution, we will be approving the annual budget and holding elections. The full agenda will be announced as we get closer to the meeting.

We will be electing new members of the Congregation Council, 2022 Synod Assembly voting members, and our Nominating Committee for 2023 elected positions. What are we looking for at Council? The diversity of opinion and life experience that you can bring to our discussions. Contact Kathy Kalmar, Cindy Hausch-Booth, or Sean Murphy if you are interested in Council, Synod Assembly, or Nominating Committee. And if you have questions about Council, please feel free to talk about it with any of our Council members.

June 27, 2021 Congregational Meeting Recap

Thanks to all who participated in the Congregation Meeting on June 27th! We will publish official minutes when they are approved by Council. It has been a very eventful but disappointing month for the Narthex Renovation project. Thank you to everyone who helped to evaluate the bid situation, consider our project and financial options, and to prepare the meeting.

If you missed the meeting or would like to see the presentation material at the meeting, it can be found here:

The congregation voted to approve a resolution:

We, the Congregation of St. Mark’s, commit to discussions in the months ahead about how best to move the Narthex renovation project forward.

Now, how will we proceed?

First of all, we will publish a survey to gather additional input and feedback from you about the Narthex Project. The primary focus of our Congregation Meeting was to update the members on the bid situation and our financial picture. You may have additional questions about what was discussed. We will give everyone an opportunity to provide additional questions, ideas, opinions, and priorities about the project. If you would like to be more involved with the discussions moving forward, we will provide you with the opportunity to sign up to participate in meetings. Your inputs will help shape our discussions with the architect about the scope of options we consider.

Second, our architect is working to begin to define the different options to investigate. He has identified a construction consultant who may help advise on the costs of our project and market conditions for labor and materials. Council will meet on July 11 to discuss our near-term plans to kickoff this new phase of our project.

Please check the E-Messenger and Bulletin throughout the summer for additional updates on the Narthex Renovation. In the meantime, since the Narthex is not going to be a construction zone any time soon, please enjoy being back together and sharing fellowship in the Narthex!

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Narthex Renovation Update

As you all know from the Congregation Meeting, the bids we received for the construction phase were much higher than we can afford. For the announcement about those bids, click this link: Narthex Renovation Update [from June 20, 2021]

From the Congregation Meeting: We began June by preparing for the Narthex Renovation bid approvals, and in our regular meeting we planned for a vote by the congregation to approve the construction phase. Plans quickly changed when the bids came in much higher than our budgeted cost, and we planned a special meeting on June 20 to meet with the architect and discuss the recommendations of the Finance Committee. Our discussions with the architect left us with optimism that we can analyze market conditions, construction costs, and design/construction options to find out what paths lead to affordable choices. We recommended proceeding with the scheduled congregation meeting to inform the congregation about the status of the project and recommendations from Finance and Council.